Which to use
“fess” is a verb and “feu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,640
- “fess” frequency rank
- #43,641
- “feu” frequency rank
- 87281
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fess | feu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To confess; to admit. | Land held in feudal tenure. |
Where the eye mixes fess and feu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fess vs feu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fess is /fɛs/ while feu is /fjuː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fess is recorded at frequency rank #43,640, classified as averb, pronounced /fɛs/. feu is at rank #43,641, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fjuː/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 87281, this pair ranks #7,843 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fess vs feu
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fess": s. Private to "feu": u.
"fess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "feu" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fess ← efss · ffess · fses
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fess" and "feu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "fess" or "feu" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "feu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,843 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fess" and "feu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feu vs foh". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #7,843 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.